Monday, December 1, 2008

UGA goes up against Western Kentucky and Pettigrew

Some of you who follow the Rivals message board for UGA basketball may remember that a couple of years ago I was a Steffphon Pettigrew supporter and wished UGA had offered him.

Dennis Felton went up to see Pettigrew work out and came back without making the offer. Felton's a pretty good judge of talent, and I get the sense that he was looking for a particular style of player with what he believed was his last scholarship for the 2007 class.

Since Pettigrew was a bit of a "tweener," a player that is not considered big enough to play inside, nor a good enough dribbler to play outside, Dennis Felton probably wanted to go with another guard. However, since Jeremy Jacob, a member of Georgia's '07 signing class, did not stay, hindsight suggests it probably would have been best to bring Pettigrew in.

Here's the YouTube video from the Pettigrew signing with Western Kentucky.

Pettigrew was relatively quiet last year, and averaged something like 5 points. However, he has come into his own during the early part of the 2008/2009 season. WKU's coach has apparently dispensed with trying to make Pettigrew a guard, and put Pettigrew at the power forward position, where he played in high school.

Although Pettigrew is shorter than most other power forwards, he has found a way to out-physical and out-work his opponents. In his two most recent games, Pettigrew had 20 points against the Salukis, and a huge 17-point, 12 rebound performance against Louisville, the #3 ranked team in the country. Even more impressive was the fact that in the Louisville game, Pettigrew was matched up in the post against Samardo Samuels, a big 6' 9" 270-lb post player.

A fantastic offensive and defensive game. In short, the type of guy that Felton might wish he had now. Although Pettigrew probably would not start over a Jeremy Price or a Howard Thompkins at Georgia's power foward slot, it would have been great to bring Pettigrew off the bench to play somewhere when the match-ups were favorable.